Thursday 9 August 2018

BITI'S LAWYERS FIGHT TO KEEP HIM OUT OF ZIM


Opposition leader, Tendai Biti arrived at the Zambian side of the Chirundu One-Stop Border Post last night while his lawyers are preparing to file an urgent High Court application to stop him from being sent back to Harare.

Biti is being sought by the police over a number of allegations, including inciting violence that rocked Harare after voting in the harmonised elections last week and his illegal declaration of MDC-Alliance presidential candidate Mr Nelson Chamisa as the winner.
Only the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is mandated by the constitution to declare a winner of an election.

Biti yesterday tried to evade the police by heading to Zambia, but was taken in by the Zambian authorities while trying to cross into that country at Chirundu Border Post.

In an interview with The Herald  last night, Zambia’s Foreign Minister Joseph Malanji said Biti had come to that country to seek asylum, but his grounds were not meritorious.

He said Zimbabwe’s political situation was stable and there was no reason for Biti to try to seek refuge in that country citing political instability.

“He came here trying to seek asylum, but the grounds on which he wanted to apply for asylum did not meet the requirement as required by the law,” he said.

Minister Malanji said if Biti was facing any charges in Zimbabwe he had to attend to them in a legitimate court of law.



“What we have done to Mr Biti is to give him safe custody before he heads back to Harare,” he said. “We are simply making sure Mr Biti has a safe passage back to Harare.”

Asked when Mr Biti would be coming back to Harare, Minister Malanji said: “It is not up to us to tell when he’s going back.”

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